Life history response of female Mediterranean fruit flies, Ceratitis capitata, to periods of host deprivation
1986
Carey, J.R. | Krainacker, D.A. | Vargas, R.I.
Female medflies were subjected to four different patterns of host deprivation at each of three levels for a 24-day period. Treatments ranged from host absence 8 days post-eclosion to host absence 2 out of 3 days. Survival was recorded daily and egg production was recorded on the days in which hosts were present. The direct effect of host deprivation is to deny females the opportunity to oviposit. This disrupts their reproductive cycle and reduces their overall reproductive effort. Reduced reproductive effort at young ages increases survival (up to 2-fold) and daily reproduction (up to 8-fold) at older ages. Therefore, the long term effect of host deprivation is to postpone senescence. The implications of these findings regarding medfly sensescence are discussed in relation to: (i) reduction in population extinction rates during periods of host scarcity and (ii) egging strategies in medfly mass-rearing.
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